"Hermann Meier (born May 29, 1906 in Selzach, † August 19, 2002 in Zullwil) was a Swiss composer.

Although Hermann Meier received piano and organ lessons, he continued his studies in the theoretical subjects at the Basel Music Academy. Nevertheless, he did not hit a musician's career. Instead, he became a teacher. He worked for 47 years in Zullwil (Solothurn) as a village school teacher. In addition to his professional activity, Meier had to feed a family of seven, he devoted himself to the life of the composition and appeared in the Schwarzbubenland musically as a conductor of village choirs in appearance. He regularly visited nearby Basel, where he came into contact with the works of Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern and others. He took composition lessons with Vladimir Vogel and René Leibowitz.

In 1948, at the instigation of Vladimir Vogel in Orselina, a preparatory meeting was held for a "Dodecaphonic Congress", in which Meier met, inter alia, Luigi Dallapiccola, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Rolf Liebermann and Erich Schmid.

Despite intensive efforts Meier was able to see to today's state of research until the age of 70 years, only three performances of his works, all at the house music evenings for contemporary music of the Bernese couple Hermann and Irène Gattiker. An explanation provides the novelty of his work, so he explored early compositional techniques and took aesthetic positions, like no one else in Switzerland. Probably even before Jacques Wildberger and thus as the first Swiss composer he explored serial and punctual techniques, worked at the same time as Iannis Xenakis or György Ligeti on sound surfaces and wrote in the mid-1950s very reduced scores full of breaks. Since the mid-50s Meier worked with graphic scores, which he based on the revered painter Piet Mondrian Mondriane.

In 1975 Meier was able to realize the composition Klangschichten at the renowned experimental studio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation. In 1976 he received a prize for the work of the Canton of Solothurn for this composition, the only official award during his lifetime.

The composer Urs Peter Schneider became the first interpreter who vehemently championed Meier. In the mid-1980s, Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern was premiered by Schneider's various pieces by Meier. Dominik Blum, a pupil of Schneiders, published the first CD with works by Hermann Meier in 2001 in the edition Wandelweiser. Hermann Meier died in 2002 in Zullwil. Only posthumously, the signs of a rediscovery of Meier increase. In 2009, his estate was accepted into the Paul Sacher Foundation, the aart-verlag Zürich started with a complete edition of his works and in 2010 the Basel SinfoniettaOn the initiative of the composer Marc Kilchenmann, for the first time two of his 28 orchestral works were premiered. In addition, contributions to Hermann Meier were published in the journal dissonanz-dissonance and the Schweizer Musikzeitung."

"Dominik Blum - pianist, keyboarder, conductor. Concert graduate SMPV at Urs Peter Schneider in Bern. Concerts and radio records as panist and conductor (solo, chamber music, chamber operas). Classical repertoire and contemporary works by famous international and swiss composers, new discoveries like Sam Hayden, David Dramm, Werner M. Grimmel, Martin Imholz, Olga Diener a.o. Rock music from early childhood on. Long experiences with analog electronics. Free music and interdisciplinary projects in several groups: Since 1995 with Steamboat Switzerland. Since 2001 duo worl with the saxophone player Raphael Camenisch, since 2003 with the pianist Tamriko Kordzaia. Since 2005 new border experiences with the improvising noise metal trio AZEOTROP. 2000 first release of solo piano works by the swiss avantgarde composer Hermann Meier. Tours in Europe, China, Russia, USA, Canada, Southern America. Composer of open musicayl concepts (music one, two, three, etc). Teaches piano. 1998 cultural price of the city of Winterthur, 2001 price of cultural foundation Winterthur. Lives there with his his wife, the music teacher Sabina von Werra (vonwerranachblum) and their two kids Xenia and Seraphim."